@attheedgeofscience Thank you sir. I try I guess. It just frustrates me how no one talks about this. For some reason, hearing is left out of almost everything in public conversation and when it is mentioned, they only talk about hearing loss and not tinnitus or hyperacusis which in my opinion are far far worse.
All of the three (i.e. hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis) are kind of "niche" matters in medicine. Society is dealing with far more basic issues which makes it harder for niche stuff to get people's attention. As an example, the opioid epidemic in the US claimed around 17,000 lives in 2016. In that same year, there were about 45,000 suicides (of which tinnitus as a cause of suicide was just a fraction). Needless to say, hardcore public preventive medicine deals with stuff like obesity, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. Not tinnitus; not hearing loss; and certainly not hyperacusis.
For the same reason, funding for tinnitus research is negligible and hence calling in on a radio show is a really cost-effective method that has the potential to reach a lot of people and perhaps "make some noise" (which was the ATA's motto in their 2016 webinars).
Similarly trying to find a way to effectively copy the ice bucket challenge is hopeless. There will never be a movement to support such a concept. So, again: it's about winning the few points that can be won and being opportunistic about it. While some disease areas (and their respective organizations) may be blessed with lots of funding, the tinnitus community will continue to have to eat the crumbs that are leftovers from the plates of the rich.
That's just the way it is...
I really hope stem cell therapy ramps up. You mentioned in another thread that some people have already had hearing improvement from stem cell treatment. My friend told me that a couple people in the UK had stem cell treatment for blindness and they went from completely blind to being able to read and legally drive.
I do too. But, stem cells have a wide area of application in medicine, and so, I think targeted approaches are probably better for medical conditions like tinnitus. So the emerging field of inner ear pharma companies and their pipelines is what to focus on, I think. Having said that, the outcome of the Florida Hospital for Children study is of course important: it was designed using stem cell technology that is already available on the market today. And so, a good result could fast forward the waiting period for hearing loss. We shall see...